Recipients of Kennedy Center Honors

Updated September 9, 2022 | Infoplease Staff Information

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., created its Honors awards in 1978 to recognize the lifetime achievements of selected American performing artists.


1978
Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, Richard Rodgers, Arthur Rubinstein, George Balanchine
1979
Ella Fitzgerald, Henry Fonda, Martha Graham, Tennessee Williams, Aaron Copland
1980
James Cagney, Leonard Bernstein, Agnes de Mille, Lynn Fontanne, Leontyne Price
1981
Count Basie, Cary Grant, Helen Hayes, Jerome Robbins, Rudolf Serkin
1982
George Abbott, Lillian Gish, Benny Goodman, Gene Kelly, Eugene Ormandy
1983
Katherine Dunham, Elia Kazan, James Stewart, Virgil Thomson, Frank Sinatra
1984
Lena Horne, Danny Kaye, Gian Carlo Menotti, Arthur Miller, Isaac Stern
1985
Merce Cunningham, Irene Dunne, Bob Hope, Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, Beverly Sills
1986
Lucille Ball, Ray Charles, Yehudi Menuhin, Antony Tudor, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy
1987
Perry Como, Bette Davis, Sammy Davis, Jr., Nathan Milstein, Alwin Nikolais
1988
Alvin Ailey, George Burns, Myrna Loy, Alexander Schneider, Roger L. Stevens
1989
Harry Belafonte, Claudette Colbert, Alexandra Danilova, Mary Martin, William Schuman
1990
Dizzy Gillespie, Katharine Hepburn, Risë Stevens, Jule Styne, Billy Wilder
1991
Roy Acuff, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the brothers Fayard and Harold Nicholas, Gregory Peck, Robert Shaw
1992
Lionel Hampton, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Ginger Rogers, Mstislav Rostropovich, Paul Taylor
1993
Johnny Carson, Arthur Mitchell, Georg Solti, Stephen Sondheim, Marion Williams
1994
Kirk Douglas, Aretha Franklin, Morton Gould, Harold Prince, Pete Seeger
1995
Jacques d'Amboise, Marilyn Horne, B. B. King, Sidney Poitier, Neil Simon
1996
Edward Albee, Benny Carter, Johnny Cash, Jack Lemmon, Maria Tallchief
1997
Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, Charlton Heston, Jessye Norman, Edward Villella
1998
Bill Cosby, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Willie Nelson, André Previn, Shirley Temple Black
1999
Victor Borge, Sean Connery, Judith Jamison, Jason Robards, Stevie Wonder
2000
Mikhail Baryshnikov, Plácido Domingo, Angela Lansbury, Chuck Berry, Clint Eastwood
2001
Julie Andrews, Van Cliburn, Quincy Jones, Jack Nicholson, Luciano Pavarotti
2002
James Earl Jones, James Levine, Chita Rivera, Paul Simon, Elizabeth Taylor
2003
James Brown, Carol Burnett, Loretta Lynn, Mike Nichols, Itzhak Perlman
2004
Warren Beatty, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Elton John, Joan Sutherland, John Williams
2005
Tony Bennett, Suzanne Farrell, Julie Harris, Robert Redford, Tina Turner
2006
Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, William “Smokey” Robinson, Steven Spielberg, Andrew Lloyd Webber
2007
Steve Martin, Diana Ross, Leon Fleisher, Martin Scorsese, Brian Wilson
2008
Morgan Freeman, George Jones, Barbra Streisand, Twyla Tharp, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey

Peforming Arts Awards - Tonys, Obies, Drama Desk Awards - Infoplease.com
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